must touch me, from there I start to work with it. Sometimes I just recognise what I am looking for when I see it. This question actually made me think about this a bit more. When I draw a tree it can also be seen as a portrait. So for me a portrait can be a landscape and a landscape can be portrait. I try to capture the whole experience. You are an established artist and over the years your artworks have been showcased in many occasions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram https://www.instagram.com/marloesabe n123 — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Marloes Aben: I find it interesting to show my work in different places. Online platforms provide new opportunities to show and view work from people all over the world. Or there could be a collaboration with an artist on the other side of the world that you have never met. I find that interesting. A few months ago, I participated in an exhibition with a “pedestal” theme. I normally never use a plinth in my work, scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Marloes Aben Land
but I do work with shaped canvas, for example. In that project, the work called for the omission of place and time. In the case of the pedestal, a fixed shape was given as the starting point. I used a huge drawing that I cut into pieces into three pedestals and made a three-dimensional work from it. In this way the pedestal became part of the work. That also inspires me to something new. A drawing could stand in the middle of space and take on any scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Shaped wood zwart jasje. (black jacket) mixed media 52x49 cm
Rood jasje met hoofd. (red jacket with head) marker on cardboard 50x70 cm
zwart jasje met hoofd. (black jacket with head) marker on cardboard 50x70 cm
shape I want… We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Marloes. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Marloes Aben: At the moment I am working on a series of 365 drawings in the year 2022. The format is A5 and I make a drawing every day. I also did this six years ago. This time a collaboration has formed with Fieke Ypma, with whom I attended the Academy. I make a drawing every day and Fieke writes a short text to go with it. We work independently from each other, but the text and image go together and this often creates special outcomes. At the end of this year, we want to exhibit the whole collection and make a book from a selection of the best pieces. I am also working on a new work based on the theme “home”, for an exhibition in Schiedam next August. In addition, some ideas are developing about new, large works based on landscapes. I also want to work on portraits of dead animals, I am in contact with my cousin who is a Ranger in New Zealand. I’m actually quite curious myself about what this will develop into. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Marloes Aben Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Bird of prey, chalk on cardboard 70x100 cm
Hello Sandra and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://sandrahaney.artweb.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you studied at the prestigious Central St Martins School of Art, London: how do these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum address the direction of your current artistic research? Sandra Haney: Firstly I would like to thank LandEscape very much for selecting my work and inviting me to participate in this interview. I think your title 'LandEscape' is very apt. My relationship with my surroundings has been a feature of my work for many years. Inspiration currently comes from local natural spaces where I regularly walk. I create expressive paintings inspired by moments in landscape. Being outdoors in nature frees me to immerse myself in an inner world which I endeavour to recreate visually, at times linking to memories and imagination. There is an element of abstraction in my work, as I explore ways to convey the feeling of place at a certain time. I usually paint in oils, where my paintings start from direct observation. I am particularly attracted to expansive landscapes looking towards a distant horizon where sky meets land. My paintings are influenced by the prevailing season and weather conditions. I like to explore abstraction, focussing on marks and process. Some of my more abstract work contains reference to landscapes and memory of place and time. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Sandra Haney
Though Art was among my 'A' levels at school, it was not considered a viable career choice for working class girls in the 70s, so at University I studied languages. But my love of art persisted, and in the 1980s I studied drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture part time at London’s Strand Centre, gaining a place at St Martin's School of Art as it was merging with Central School of Art. Paying fees and supporting myself financially, fulltime study was unfeasible, so I attended the part time BA in Fine Art and Critical Studies for a year where I created installations, explored context and postmodernism, as well as continuing my drawing and painting while working. Work and family commitments took me away from London, and art study took a back seat. I continued my own practice, taking occasional workshops and short classes in painting and printmaking with artists whose work I admire. Art studies in London gave me a great grounding in various disciplines, an appreciation of the importance of observation, and a love of experimentation. I am still learning, which sustains my interest. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way you draw inspiration from direct experience to unveil the relationship between memory and abstraction. When walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how important is intuition for you? scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Autumn Mist. Oil on canvas 40 x 30 cm.
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Approaching Winter. Oil on canvas 25.5 x 20.5 cm.
Sandra Haney: Intuition plays a part in all my work, to a greater or lesser extent, from the more figurative paintings worked en plein air, to the more intuitive abstracts created in my studio. The Flow is a painting about intuition that started from intuition. While visual memories of plants and water flowing in landscape have appeared in the painting, it is actually about that mental state of 'Flow', also known as being 'in the zone' where intuition and the process take over and the painting directs itself. I began this one by applying colours, without a plan or visual reference, but arranging shapes, setting it aside for consideration then over-painting areas, seeing what emerged and responding to it, making marks and enjoying the process until I reached a stage when I was satisfied with what had emerged. Intuition guides my decision-making process: what to include or omit; the composition; kind of marks and use of colour. The Other Shed is an example painted from direct observation, relying less on intuition for the shapes and subject matter, but what intuitively attracted me to the scene was sunlight hitting the spade, giving it a significance, putting it in the centre of painting. Your works show a keen eye for colors able to create such unique atmosphere that expresses the resonance between the nuances of tones and the specifics of the environment and to the season and weather conditions. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks and how do you develop your tones in order to achieve such unique results? Sandra Haney: Thank you very much. I am Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
Late Summer Walk. Oil on canvas 60 x 40 cm.
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition The Other Shed. Oil on board 40 x 50 cm.
fascinated by the power of colours and their combinations to evoke feelings and atmosphere. Whether it makes me an optimist or pessimist, I feel negative about the environmental crisis, the pandemic and political situation here, but I try to look for the positive in life. So I search for light in a dark landscape or sky. I view light as a metaphor for hope and positivity in darkness and adversity. In paintings I often try to determine Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land The Flow. Oil on wood panel 30 x 30 cm
the darkest tone, then relate others to it, considering their value then colour. I mix my own colours from a limited palette as I like economy and find a limited palette helps provide harmony. I must have been in a very positive frame of mind when I painted Late Summer Walk and The Stream, which are filled largely with light and soft colours. February Trees is a soft and rather sombre scene in what can be a rather dull time of year scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Indian Summer. Oil on wood panel, 30 x 30cm.
Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Autumn Colour. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm.
The Footpath. Oil on canvas 60 x 40cm.
here. Brightened by the stream reflecting light, and a dash of bright green moss as a reminder that life goes on and Spring will come around. As you have remarked once, you are concerned with atmosphere and with the feeling of a place at a particular time. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us: as an artist whose process starts from direct observation, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Sandra Haney: I agree with Peter Doig's comment. What we see has to be processed internally before being represented in paint. A bit of the artist will be in all they create, I think this is inevitable. We each have our own version of reality, and what's in our heads will affect our paintings, even those from direct observation. Otherwise we would all create the same painting when faced with the same subject. The boundary between reality and imagination is blurred. Moreover, I expect to express some of my thoughts and feelings in my paintings, I am not looking to directly reproduce a scene. We dare say that your works could be considered a response to direct experience mediated by the lens of memory: do you agree with this intepretation? In particular, how do your memories fuel your creative process? Sandra Haney: This is true, particularly for some of my recent work. The older I get the more memories I have! Naturally, recent scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Where to Now? Oil on canvas 25.5 x 20.5 cm.
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition February Trees. Oil on board 38 x 33 cm.
memory plays a significant part in my landscapes that were not created in the studio on returning from a walk with sketches and photos. But longer term memory also creeps in without being asked. With ageing, I am aware of distant memory being part of my work. Approaching Winter is one of those paintings that started from direct observation but where memories crept in. Some of my more abstract works, Past Summer and Pitchpoles, are examples of paintings that started from distant memory. Pitchpoles was inspired by memories of childhood summers: rolling down grassy hills with my sister and reference to a chalk white horse cut in the hillside. You are a versatile artist and your practice unveils the point of convergence between abstraction and figurative: how do you consider the relationship between such apparently opposite aspects of your works? Sandra Haney: The balance between abstract and figurative work is something that fascinates me. In my work it is one of my main preoccupations. Figurative imagery and its representation, usually with reference to landscapes, occurs in even my most 'abstract' works. It has been said that all art is abstract, and I agree with this viewpoint. I believe it also affirms Peter Doig's statement. An artist abstracts what is personally significant even when producing a figurative painting. Some works of yours — more specifically Approaching Winter — may be associated with a piece of music that you associate with the place that inspired the artwork: could you tell us more about this interesting aspect of your artistic process? Sandra Haney: Approaching Winter, as scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Sandra Haney Land
mentioned previously, started from direct observation of a patch of stony barren land near my home. 20 years ago this was a place for family bike rides with my young daughter. The dry scrubland brought to mind deserts; the band America’s 'Horse With No Name' came to mind as we rode along in the dry. There is something I find compelling about desert landscapes and associated music. Without shade or water, a vast desert landscape came to mind, though the patch of land we were on was about the size of a football pitch. We dare say that your artworks highlight contours of known reality in an unknown world, inviting the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface: how important is for you to provide your audience with freedom to realize their own perception? More specifically, how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? Sandra Haney: I believe it is inevitable that viewers will realise their own perceptions, and I am delighted when they take the time to consider my work. Each of us has our own unique set of experiences, our own approach to a work of art. The viewer will likely not have knowledge of my thoughts, memories or even the particular location of a landscape. It is not necessary to know these things. For me what is more important is the ability to connect on another level. I enjoy making these connections, and communicating with others who find something in my work that resonates with them. You are an established artist: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition The Stream. Acrylic on wood, 120 x 66 cm.
change the relationship with a globalised audience? Sandra Haney: The majority of my current audience found me through online galleries. Most of my sales have been through these galleries, and I’m very grateful for that. Some of my work is now in private collections in Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
several countries. Viewers of my work range from repeat buyers who leave reviews, to those who just ‘follow’ but don’t engage. I have made connections with artists in other countries and regularly get messages from an artist in France who I've never met but who follows my work online. The Internet enables work to be seen by scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Summer on the Plateau. Oil on canvas 50 x 50 cm.
people globally, which means that I can see work by many great artists that I would not have seen or known about otherwise. The art world has become more accessible, artists from all backgrounds can participate and have the chance to show their work and make connections. Contact with organisations and online magazines such as LandEscape, are scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Sandra Haney Land Pitchpoles. Oil on wood panel, 30 x 30 cm.
made via the Internet, providing artists with opportunities to connect and talk about our work. I did not grow up with computers, and marketing is not my strength, but social media is an invaluable tool and one to which I should probably devote more time. I have a website, facebook, twitter and Instagram, which offer more functions than I currently use: https://www.instagram.com/sandra.haney. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Sandra. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Sandra Haney: Thank you so much for your interest in my work and for giving me this opportunity to think and talk about it. I am currently working on studies of the red currant bushes in my back garden, which are at their most colourful now. As well as honing my observation and stocking my visual image library, these plants evoke memories of being a teenager working on a fruit farm and travelling. These days I work on subject matter close to home. As Proust said: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." I intend to continue painting my local landscape, there is so much to learn and I want to further explore abstraction in my work, limiting marks and detail with a 'less is more' approach. Landscape is a constant source of inspiration for me as it changes continually, as we all do. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
Sandra Haney scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Brisk Winter Walk. Oil on canvas 25.5 x 20.5 cm.
Hello Anna and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training: you graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and you later studied at the Moscow State Institute: how do these formative years influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your multicultural substratum — due to your Russian roots and you current life in Turkey — address the direction of your current artistic research? Anna Barlas: The Faculty of Natural Sciences involves the study of nature, in particular, botany, anatomy, physiology ... Of course, this influenced my perception of the world. I notice the plants around me, I often know their names and believe Born in Russia in 1970, Anna Barlas studied at the Ukrainian Natural Science Faculty and the Moscow State Institute. She realized her first art works in Svetlana İnaç Atelier between 2012‑2015. Continuing, she has participated in 2018 and 2021 in ART Ankara Contemporary Art Fair; She attended the Art Seminar "River and Lemon" in Irbid, Jordan. The same year, she took part in the "Woman in Life" exhibition at Gallery Abay in Istanbul and in the "Dreams, Emotions, Colors" solo exhibition at the Dünyagoz Hospital Gallery; In 2019, she participated in the exhibition of the 100th Anniversary of May 19th (a national commemoration day), the Fifth International Armada Art Festival, and the Third International Day of Art in Ardahan University. Personal exhibition was held at gallery of the United Painters and Sculptors Society in Ankara between 3rd – 15th June 2022. Russian-born Turkish painting artist Anna Barlas works in the style of "Magical reality". The main theme of these works, in which daily life is reflected by using archetypal and mythological elements, is the self-identification of women and their appeal to nature as a source of power. In this context, she focuses on the subject of "women", one of the important agendas of today, not from the outside and passively, but from the inside and with an active expression, and defines the connection between the inner world and the outside. Instead of reflecting an imprisoned and dark life, it gives place to the emotionality of a hopeful, colorful and bright life. In this sense, despite the negative realities of today, she presents the creative structure of women as a guide. Considering the bottleneck that the world is going through and its wearing pressures on women, we ask for your help and support for the exhibition of these works, which deal with a bright future and its dominant role in its creation, as well as the indispensable creative power of women. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Anna Barlas
Life and Death
that they live their own significant life (even more significant than humans, it seems to me). As the great Russian poet Pushkin wrote, "when death comes, the young will still play with life, and the indifferent nature will shine with eternal beauty." By the way, about my second education. I am also a philologist and I teach Russian. I try to assign the paintings with existential meaning. Of course, books, and in general, education, give us a general picture of the world, where everything is Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Famme Fatal
connected and can be expressed with the help of symbols. Your current artistic production focuses on the subject of "women", one of the important agendas of today, and it's remarkable that the subjects of the works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape not fall prey to the emotional prettification of a beloved subject. On the contrary, you present the figure of women as a powerful guide. When walking our readers scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Milk
through the genesis of your works, would you tell us what did you address to center your artistic research on this stimulating theme? Anna Barlas: A woman is a leader and a source of strength without any emotional embellishments. I think it's becoming more and more clear these days. You look at women leaders in different spheres of life. For example, the head of the World Trade Organization, the representative of Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Time
Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala or Angela Merkel, and so on. What do I look for in an artistic search? For myself, of course. I draw and paint my emotional states and thoughts. And the female Archetypes come to help me - the Goddess, the Woman, the Mother, the Homeland, the Earth, the Nature. In particular, what could be in your opinion the role of artists in making aware people of a variety scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Morpheus
Inspiration
Girl and Dragon
of issues that affect our unstable societies? Anna Barlas: I would not take on the role of an informant. Rather, I am a spokesman or reflector of mood. And, since the theme of my work is the female gaze, I would like to demonstrate to the world the original depth and power of nature. She should be a source and support for us in turbulent times. We definitely love the way your works unveil the connection between the inner world and the outside, as the interesting Life and Death: how do your memories and your everyday life's Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Challenge Bastet
experience fuel your creative process? Anna Barlas: As for death as part of life: We have to watch this every day, unfortunately. We see how our cats hunt birds, and our dogs hunt cats. I often use this image. We eat and they eat us .. And other details of everyday life evoke associations - milk flowing from a cup, an empty shell, butterflies that live one day.The great Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova wrote: «If you only knew what kind of garbage Wild poems grow, ignoring shame As dandelions turn yellow fence scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Waiting tavuskuşu
Like burdock and bindweed... An angry cry, an invigorating smell of resin, And the walls with runic dew as a sign... And soon a gentle, quick-tempered poem answers To your pleasure and mine» Anything can be a source of inspiration. The tones of your works, be they joyful and bright as Autumn, be they marked out with thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance, as Lilith, create delicate tension and dynamics: how does Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land outem
your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works? In particular, what role does play intuition in the composition of your pallette? Anna Barlas: Intuition is everything. The choice of color can be influenced by mood, weather, season... For example, red currant berries appeared in the garden. They are so brightly contrasted with greenery, I want to remember them, and only then, images scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Garden at night
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Anna Barlas Land Owl
MadonNatura
from the night garden come to mind, a lantern, a bat, a white mouse running about its business, and then a black cat watching it (by contrast). Or if you want a festivity, the bright yellow color in the base on the canvas gives rise to associations, what can be in this color? Autumn, of course, the festive season, so short-term (memento mori again) We highly appreciate the way your works address your audience to dive into the dreamlike dimension, helping them to discover its connections with ordinary life. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Anna Barlas: All the beauty and diversity of the surrounding world in a realistic manner cannot be properly reflected in the picture. (I can't). Yes, this is probably not necessary. Photos do it better. But you can try to convey the mood of what you see. Or to see a fairy tale in everyday action, a connection with a legend, to evoke an archetype and then this mirage appears - either as reality, or as a dream ... Marked out with such captivating surreal quality, enhanced by sapient use of symbolically charged images, your work entitled Turkey draw the viewers to a state of mind where the concepts of time Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Turkey Temptation
becomes suspended. How do you consider the role of symbols and references to specific cultures playing within your artistic practice? Anna Barlas: You will not believe it, but I saw the model for the painting "Turkey" in the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. She had oriental features - black eyebrows, dark eyes. Visually, she could pass as a Turkish woman. The drowsy state in this picture expresses unconsciousness, there may be a misunderstanding of it's own strength. The female power here is suppressed, still sleeping... And the domes of mosques and fish with Turkish symbols from the “ward off evil eye”, Ottoman tulips are floating... By the way, the shape of the fish is the imprint of a peach leaf, they are oblong like fish. Symbols are perceived by everyone, or perhaps they cause an unconscious response in everyone, because they are the archetypes. National characteristics can be expressed in small characteristic details. This is great. With their stimulating expressive power, your paintings seem to crystallize such a wide variety of feelings. Some of them, as the extremely stimulating Temptation and Süt are characterized by stimulating visual ambivalence, able to provide the spectatorship with freedom to realize their own perception: : how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Anna Barlas: Sometimes I ask my Facebook audience as to how I would name some paintings. I myself do not always understand the connection between objects that arose in the process of work, or rather, I can interpret it in a completely different way than the audience. So I see temptation, others see tenderness. For the painting "Milk" in Turkish "Süt", a well-known author of books on art in Turkey, the artist Celal Binzet, found many associations unknown to me. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Anna Barlas Land
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I will give his full review of the painting "Milk" "In medieval Christianity, the clergy propagate that cats and beautiful women are possessed by demons. At that time, many women were burned in the middle of the street on the grounds that they were allegedly possessed by demons. Some of them are severely tortured. While they are being applied to women, slaughtering of cats continues in the streets.When cats are destroyed, rats in the open sewers multiply.This is the cause of the plague epidemic in Europe in the 14th century. Italian writer Boccaccio writes his book "The Decameron" because of the epidemic. Decameron is known to mean "ten days" Because the incubation period of the plague microbe is ten days.(And 14 days for the Corona virus.) Three young men and seven young women who are locked in a castle in the Decameron tell a story every day.Thus, in 10 days there are 100 stories. This belief in Christianity is also present in the ideology of Islam. This is the result because the common source of the two religions is Judaism. As for the cat... In ancient Egypt, the cat was a god. Statues of the god Bastet are created and a lapis lazuli stone is placed in his eyes. This stone is blue in color and very valuable, coming from the same region. In some periods, the blue paint obtained from this stone was used by painters. In the events that I am trying to describe, there is an intellectual connection between the image of a woman and a cat. The image of the bird, on the other hand, abounds in both Greek mythology and Eastern mythology. In Greece, he becomes the messenger of the gods. Mentioned in the myth of the Simurghs in the east. (Simurg: This means thirty birds.) It is known in the Far East that there are thoughts that the crane is related to immortality. The last part is devoted to milk. As you know, Zeus is a very loving god. Unbeknownst to his wife, he is reunited with a mortal woman and has a son with her: Hercules. Zeus takes his son and places him on her chest while his wife Hera sleeps. Its purpose is to provide Hercules with milk from Hera's breast. However, when Hercules bites Hera on the chest, Anna Barlas scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
the woman wakes up in pain and violently drives him away. Meanwhile, the milk flowing from her breasts spills towards the sky. The fact that the star system we call the Milky Way is called "the Milky Way" in the west is related to this event» This is a bit of a long explanation, but I hope I haven't bored you. You are an established artist and over the years your works have been showcased in many occasions, including your recent solo at Gallery of the United Painters and Sculptors Society in Ankara in June 2022: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Anna Barlas: If an artist is worth it, he/she gains popularity. Of course, social networks help, create connections, make advertisements .. By the way, the tastes of the public in different countries may vary. What people like in Japan may not work in the Middle East, for example. And we learn about it just on the Internet. But work in reality can look completely different than in the virtual space. And live communication with the audience and with other artists gives an emotional charge, inspiration. We just need to periodically get out of the virtual shell and feel life with all our senses. And yes, I love street art. Who are these mysterious guys that create whole worlds on the walls? Most of them are not known. What a variety of talents among young people! We have appreciated the cross disciplinary originality of your approach and before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your personal view on the future of women in contemporary art scene. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from producing something uncommon. However in the last decades there are signs that something is changing: how would you describe your personal experience as an artist? And what's your view on the future of women in such ever changing field? Anna Barlas: I'm lucky. I didn't feel pressure from society. I wanted to draw and I fulfilled my desires. There are a lot of women artists. And there are very original ones, for example, Anna Berezovskaya or Afarin Sajedi or Christina Schuldt The emphasis in society will inevitably shift towards gender equality, I think. There is no and cannot be discrimination based on gender in the field of art. It does not require any special male or female qualities. Only in the sense of seeing the world there are differences between us, but they just give diversity. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Anna. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Anna Barlas: Now I am thinking about a series of works in the same style. But so far the project has a vague outline. I would like, again, to combine the theme of fate as a destiny, and ordinary human life. I feel the need for further learning and improvement. I hope for the help and participation of the Divine, it seems to me that I have a Muse that is watching me :)) scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]